content voice guidelines
you do not need a forty-page brand book. you need one screen your future tired self will read before hitting send at 11pm.
most voice guidelines fail because they describe personality, not operations. traits like bold and friendly do not tell you what to fix in paragraph four.
this template is one page. pin it above your drafts. update quarterly when anchors change.
what goes on the one-pager?
- three trait adjectives that describe your best work (not aspiration)
- three anchor links to pieces you would sign today
- ten banned words or phrases you never want under your name
- opening rule: first three sentences are always yours
- scan rule: no publish without profile score
how is this different from enterprise brand books?
enterprise books optimize for committees. solo founders optimize for speed with guardrails. see how to create a brand voice guide for the longer-form version when you hire.
if the guideline does not fit on one screen, you will not read it before send. length is an adoption bug. solo founder interviews, 2026
how do you enforce without a team?
put scan in the publish checklist. store banned phrases in hyv defaults. review anchors monthly. pair with brand voice checklist.
when do you expand the doc?
when you hire writer two. until then, one page plus a profile beats a notion wiki nobody opens.
how do you write the guidelines?
start with three pieces you would publish again. mark the sentences that sound most like you and write down what they have in common. do not begin with adjectives borrowed from a brand workshop.
then add rules that change an editing decision. “be confident” is decoration. “state the claim in the first paragraph and name the constraint” is usable.
what belongs on the banned list?
include phrases you actually use when the draft is tired. review the list against real writing every quarter. a banned word is a prompt to look closer, not proof that the sentence is wrong.
keep the list short enough to remember. ten useful warnings beat a hundred-word museum of things you once disliked.
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writes about brand voice, ai writing patterns, and the craft of sounding like yourself. built hold your voice after watching his own voice flatten across six months of heavy ai drafts.
co-written with ai as sidekick. shashank drafted the observations; the ai pressure-tested the structural claims. if something reads too smooth, that's the ai's fault.